The Dig - podcast cover

The Dig

Daniel Denvirwww.thedigradio.com
The Dig is a podcast from Jacobin magazine that discusses politics, criminal justice, immigration and class conflict with smart people. Please support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=4839800

Episodes

A History of Neoliberalism w/ Quinn Slobodian

Featuring Quinn Slobodian on his book Globalists: The End of Empire and the Birth of Neoliberalism. The story of neoliberalism’s Geneva School—including Ludwig von Mises, Friedrich Hayek, and Wilhelm Röpke—and their vision for a new global order to protect the market from democratic forces in the metropole and across the decolonizing world. An interview from archives first conducted in November 2018. Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig Check out these Haymarket titles: Keywords for Capitalism ...

Aug 27, 20222 hr 16 min

Worldmaking after Empire w/ Adom Getachew

Featuring Adom Getachew on the story of how decolonization struggles across the Black Atlantic tried to not only cast off European rule but also to remake the entire world system. An October 2019 episode from the archives. Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig

Aug 19, 20222 hr

Britain After Empire w/ Kojo Koram

Featuring Kojo Koram on his brilliant book Uncommon Wealth: Britain and the Aftermath of Empire. How neoliberalism reorganized colonial capitalist plunder to survive the Third Worldist challenge, and then boomeranged back into the British metropole—a history obscured by rendering “decolonization” into a symbolic culture war battle. Check out How to Sell a Poison: The Rise, Fall, and Toxic Return of DDT by Elena Conis hachettebookgroup.com/titles/elena-conis/how-to-sell-a-poison/9781645036753/ Su...

Aug 12, 20222 hr 54 min

Dead Generations w/ Matt Christman

Featuring Matt Christman on how American history brought us to this awful present. Support this podcast at Patreon.com/TheDig

Jul 30, 20222 hr 35 min

How Capitalism Works w/ Nancy Fraser

Featuring Nancy Fraser on why a total analysis of capitalism requires taking Marxism beyond a narrowly economistic view: what everyday labor exploitation requires from politics, care work, war-making, borders, appropriation of nature, sexism, racism, and more. Dan's 2018 interview from the archives. Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig

Jul 18, 20221 hr 19 min

It’s Still Capitalism w/ Evgeny Morozov

Featuring Evgeny Morozov on his essay "Critique of Techno-Feudal Reason." Thinkers from the Marxist left all the way to the neoliberal and even neo-reactionary right are convinced that we’ve exited capitalism entirely and entered neo-feudalism. Morozov argues that our bleak moment is in fact still a thoroughly capitalist one. Evgeny's essay: newleftreview.org/issues/ii133/articles/evgeny-morozov-critique-of-techno-feudal-reason Evgeny's website: evgenymorozov.com The Syllabus: the-syllabus.com R...

Jul 08, 20223 hr 33 min

Identity, Power, and Speech with Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò

Featuring Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò on his essay "Being-in-the-Room Privilege: Elite Capture and Epistemic Deference," an interview first posted in December 2020. This pairs well with last week's Jared Clemons interview on In This House We Believe antiracism. Since 2020, Táíwò has published a book expanding on these ideas: Elite Capture: How the Powerful Took Over Identity Politics (And Everything Else). Read Táíwò's essay: thephilosopher1923.org/post/being-in-the-room-privilege-elite-capture-and-epistemic...

Jul 01, 20222 hr 45 min

In This House w/ Jared Clemons

Political scientist Jared Clemons on feckless liberal anti-racism: how In This House We Believe racial liberalism leaves racial capitalism's inequalities in place and why, drawing on Martin Luther King and A. Philip Randolph, the Black Freedom Movement instead needs solidarity with the multi-racial working class. Read Jared's article: jaredkclemons.weebly.com/uploads/1/1/7/5/117532940/clemons_2022_-_from_freedom_now_to_blm.pdf Interview with Matt Sitman and Sam Adler-Bell from February 2021: the...

Jun 24, 20222 hr 33 min

The American Right w/ Matthew Sitman and Sam Adler-Bell

Know Your Enemy hosts Matthew Sitman and Sam Adler-Bell on terrifyingly protean right-wing American politics. Check out our newsletter: thedigradio.com/newsletter Read James Pogue on the New Right: vanityfair.com/news/2022/04/inside-the-new-right-where-peter-thiel-is-placing-his-biggest-bets Read Mie Inouye's Boston Review article on union salts: bostonreview.net/articles/labors-militant-minority/

Jun 18, 20223 hr 30 min

Gunpower Death Drive w/ Patrick Blanchfield

Patrick Blanchfield analyzes the long history of US gun violence and the American death drive. Support this podcast at Patreon.com/TheDig and get our weekly newsletter by email. Check out our most recent newsletter on the Progressive Era roots of Clintonism's conception of the "deserving poor" thedigradio.com/newsletter32 Register for Socialism 2022 socialismconference.org

Jun 10, 20222 hr 29 min

The New Democrats w/ Lily Geismer

Dan's second episode with historian Lily Geismer, who he interviewed in 2019 about Don't Blame Us: Suburban Liberals and the Transformation of the Democratic Party. This interview is on Left Behind: The Democrats' Failed Attempt to Solve Inequality, which details the long history of Clintonism and the Democrats’ neoliberal turn. Read the latest newsletter. It's on what Ruthie meant when she said abolition was another word for communism: thedigradio.com/newsletter31 Listen to Geismer's first Dig ...

Jun 05, 20222 hr 9 min

Ruth Wilson Gilmore w/ Alberto Toscano and Brenna Bhandar

What role does mass incarceration play in American political economy? What does that reveal about what sort of politics are required to overcome it? Ruth Wilson Gilmore with Alberto Toscano and Brenna Bhandar, who edited the new collection Abolition Geography: Essays Towards Liberation. Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig Buy Assata Taught Me: State Violence, Racial Capitalism, and the Movement for Black Lives by Donna Murch haymarketbooks.org/books/1650-assata-taught-me

May 28, 20222 hr 8 min

Center and Periphery w/ Margarita Fajardo

Historian Margarita Fajardo on her book The World That Latin America Created: The United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America in the Development Era. Fajardo discusses the Latin American economists at the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (CEPAL) who conceptualized the division of the global economy between center and periphery, and how that later gave rise to dependency theory and world systems theory. Plus Cuban Revolution and the Alliance for Progress, Allende's...

May 21, 20222 hr

The Return of Labor Militancy

Live from New York: Dan interviews Amazon Labor Union president Chris Smalls, Jaz Brisack of Starbucks Workers United, SEIU Local 1199NE president Rob Baril, Jacobin writer Alex Press, and Labor Notes writer Luis Feliz Leon on the return of labor militancy that we see sweeping Amazon, Starbucks, and workplaces all around the US. Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig

May 13, 20222 hr 43 min

SCOTUS, Politics, and the Law w/ Aziz Rana, Amna Akbar, & Marbre Stahly-Butts

A timely interview from the archives: legal scholars Aziz Rana and Amna Akbar, and Movement for Black Lives lawyer Marbre Stahly-Butts, on SCOTUS, liberal court veneration, and other big questions on the law and politics facing the left. Find Eslanda at haymarketbooks.org/books/1769-eslanda Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig

May 07, 20222 hr 45 min

Before the West w/ Ayşe Zarakol

Ayşe Zarakol on her book Before the West: The Rise and Fall of Eastern World Orders. How centuries of Asian empires from Genghis Khan to Timur and the early Ming Dynasty through the Ottomans and Mughals built dominant world orders and, ultimately, shaped the rise of Europe—and how that all might shape how we think about the crisis in the world order today. Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig Check out phenomenalworld.org

Apr 28, 20222 hr 4 min

Bonds of Inequality w/ Destin Jenkins

Destin Jenkins on his book The Bonds of Inequality: Debt and the Making of the American City, which makes a powerful argument about how the ubiquitous and in many ways invisible dependence of American cities on municipal debt to fund basic infrastructure has devastating consequences for democracy and entrenches spatial, racial, and wealth disparities. Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig Tickets for live NYC show on The Return of Labor Militancy: eventbrite.com/e/the-return-of-labor-militancy-w...

Apr 21, 20222 hr 43 min

Police w/ Mariame Kaba and Geo Maher

Mariame Kaba and Geo Maher discuss police, the politics of policing, abolition, reform—and more. Support this podcast at Patreon.com/TheDig

Apr 15, 20222 hr 36 min

Price Wars w/ Rupert Russell & Isabella Weber

Rupert Russell and Isabella Weber discuss Russell's book Price Wars: How the Commodities Markets Made Our Chaotic World and also the current politics of inflation. Listen to Weber discuss her book How China Escaped Shock Therapy: thedigradio.com/podcast/how-china-escaped-shock-therapy-w-isabella-weber/ Look at Rupert's precious puppy: twitter.com/rupert_russell/status/1511428696409837573?s=20&t=OPVNgfXuokFY6ZQYRkxe4g Support this podcast at Patreon.com/TheDig

Apr 08, 20222 hr 15 min

Vaccine Apartheid Endures w/ Achal Prabhala

Astra interviews Achal Prabhala on the lethal persistence of global vaccine apartheid. Moderna is selfishly refusing to share or even sell (license) its mRNA technology, leaving much of the world unprotected from the pandemic and incubating new variants. Moderna's annual shareholder meeting is April 28th. Join Justice is Global, Boston DSA, and others to challenge vaccine profiteering at their Cambridge headquarters. Sign up at bitly.com/modernaaction Support this podcast at Patreon.com/TheDig...

Apr 01, 20222 hr 38 min

Clash of Empires w/ Ho-fung Hung

The second of our two-part interview with sociologist Ho-fung Hung on Chinese political and economic history. This episode covers the 2008 financial crisis, how China’s response deepened global and domestic economic imbalances and (alongside the US) heightened geopolitical conflict, the current situation—including Russia’s invasion—and a lot more. Listen to part one first if you haven't already. Support this podcast at Patreon.com/TheDig

Mar 23, 20222 hr 46 min

China Boom w/ Ho-fung Hung

Part one of a two-part interview with sociologist Ho-fung Hung on Chinese political economic history from the 18th century to 2008: why capitalism took off in England and then elsewhere but not in China; and then, how Maoist policy laid the groundwork for China’s ultimate capitalist takeoff and boom. Episode two will focus on the 2008 financial crisis, the deepening imbalances and heightened geopolitical conflict that resulted, and the current situation—including the impact of the crises surroun...

Mar 18, 20221 hr 18 min

War w/ Sophie Pinkham and Nick Mulder

Sophie Pinkham and Nick Mulder on the war, its origins, how it’s being experienced by Ukrainians, Russians, Europeans, and Americans—and also its geopolitical and global economic ramifications, particularly sanctions. Support this podcast at Patreon.com/TheDig Buy Angela Davis: An Autobiography haymarketbooks.org/books/1741-angela-davis

Mar 10, 20222 hr 35 min

Russia Invades w/ Tony Wood

Tony Wood returns to The Dig to discuss Russia’s invasion, what it reflects about Russian politics and geopolitics today and historically, and how the Left should be thinking about it all. Tony's LRB essay: lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v44/n04/tony-wood2/why-didn-t-they-stop-it Listen to past Dig eps for context on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine: Tony Wood on Russia and Putin: thedigradio.com/podcast/russia-beyond-putin-with-tony-wood Volodymyr Ishchenko on Ukraine: thedigradio.com/podcast/ukraine-w-volody...

Mar 01, 20221 hr 6 min

Invisible Hands w/ Kim Phillips-Fein

Dan interviews historian Kim Phillips-Fein on Invisible Hands: The Making of the Conservative Movement from the New Deal to Reagan. Listen to Kim's Dig interview on Fear City: New York’s Fiscal Crisis and the Rise of Austerity Politics thedigradio.com/podcast/fear-city-with-kim-phillips-fein/ Listen to past Dig eps for context on Russia's invasion of Ukraine: Tony Wood on Russia and Putin: thedigradio.com/podcast/russia-beyond-putin-with-tony-wood Volodymyr Ishchenko on Ukraine: thedigradio.com/...

Feb 26, 20222 hr 18 min

Feminist International w/ Verónica Gago

Feminist political theorist and organizer Verónica Gago on Argentina’s massive feminist movement and strike, the ties that bind domestic labor and financial exploitation, neoliberalism from below, and more. Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig Check out Coup: A Story of Violence and Resistance in Bolivia haymarketbooks.org/books/1745-coup

Feb 19, 20222 hr 35 min

Inflamed w/ Raj Patel and Rupa Marya

Industrial capitalism and colonialism are literally making us sick. Raj Patel and Rupa Marya on Inflamed: Deep Medicine and the Anatomy of Injustice. Support this podcast at Patreon.com/TheDig

Feb 11, 20222 hr 56 min

Financial Empire w/ Daniela Gabor & Ndongo Samba Sylla

Olúfẹmi Táíwò guest hosts an interview with Daniela Gabor and Ndongo Samba Sylla on how financial power has shaped the global economic order from colonialism through Bretton Woods, the Washington Consensus, and today's Wall Street Consensus. Read Daniela's work: people.uwe.ac.uk/Person/DanielaGabor Read Ndongo's work: rosalux.de/en/profile/es_detail/N8SVHTS8SA/ndongo-samba-sylla?cHash=ccf0c8d371bde0fecbac8337bbc6f832 Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig Buy The Border Crossed Us by Justin Akers...

Feb 04, 20222 hr